Breaking Glass Ceilings
by OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Birthday gift for my friend bluerosesburnblue, that pairs Ephemer with her version of Player "Sanya": Summary: When Ephemer and Sanya have their first meeting and mission together in ages, things seem great… But this begins to unravel, when Sanya remembers everything, Brain contemplates many a thing, and more of the Master of Master's plan is undone.


Sanya looked at Ephemer, finding it hard to keep her crush on him in check.

She was aware that it was stupid—since she barely knew the guy—but what could she say? He had been one of her first friends, and that stuck.

Plus, the boy was beautiful. So, there was that.

But Sanya tried to put all of this on the backburner—as she always did—and instead tried to figure out the mystery that was Daybreak Town right now.

There was some sort of hologram of it appearing above the Foretellers' Tower? Well, that didn't bode well to Sanya.

It reminded her of a movie that had, ironically, been playing when the Master of Masters had still been around: one that had dealt with people thinking that the world they were in was the actual dream.

And while the light within Sanya didn't want to believe that that was the case, she had to wonder. Wouldn't it explain a lot of the things that were happening lately?

But until Sanya knew more—because in her eyes, she wasn't wise—she was reserving judgement.

But when Brain began explaining things, in a sort of techno-babble that Sanya couldn't keep up with at all… from the few things she'd been able to understand, she thought her suspicion might have been correct.

And when Sanya and Ephemer entered the very data-esque world of Sugar Rush, she began praying that Fix-It Felix Junior would somehow fix her world back to the way it had been before.

Sanya ended up telling Ephemer as much… and about her other suspicions.

At night—while the two of them were in some sort of candy forest, and using candy canes as sticks for fire—Sanya asked the question that had been playing on her mind for so long. "I'm having… dreams about the Keyblade War. And that can't be, because that didn't happen. Right? So _why _am I dreaming these things so vividly? It actually happened... didn't it, Ephemer? And if so… can we believe that our world exists?"

There it was: everything Sanya had been regretfully mulling over for ages.

She had been afraid to give voice to any of it—thinking it would make it real, and she hated herself for doing so now.

In a way… it was sort of liberating to finally have it all out in the open. But Sanya was taken aback to find just how much she just wanted to move on to the next issue. Was it her heart's way of trying to endure the pain?

Ephemer's silence and expression were the clear answer to all of this for Sanya: his mouth was now agape—as if he meant to say something—and his arms were outstretched to, perhaps, hug her.

And if that was his intent—Sanya didn't know for sure—she knew she would have turned him down here. Even with her crush on him and love for this friend, she would have done that.

"Sanya… I'm _so _sorry. I wouldn't have done it if Master Ava hadn't insisted. Or I guess… I guess if I hadn't seen what you'd been like after the Keyblade War."

And it was here, that Sanya _really _wanted to yell at him: that they were _her _memories, and no one had any right to take them or to make judgement calls for her. Weren't those who didn't know history doomed to repeat it? But Sanya just resisted saying so.

For one thing, Ephemer had just been a cog in the machine. Her outrage should have been at Lady Ava again.

But most of all… their main thing should be surviving the Cy-Bugs right now, which Calhoun was certain would get to this world at any moment. And if both Cy-Bugs and Heartless came to exist here, Sanya didn't know how they'd survive it. But she and her Chirithy would sure try to fight!

Deciding to look at the positive for just a moment—because the negatives would certainly come back to haunt her in her dreams—Sanya recalled a certain memory of Ephemer's hand in her own, and had to ask: "So… do I actually know you more than I think do?"

Ephemer laughed at this—something that was music to Sanya's ears, because she _didn't _want everything to be ruined between them forever—before saying with his hands up in the air again, "Not really. No? …'cept for the time Skuld and I came and rescued you in the Keyblade Graveyard. But you've actually spent more time with Skuld than me—maybe you remember that?—but you guys did spend a while looking for me, so maybe you were thinking of me then…. I'm sorry about that."

Ephemer was scratching his head nervously now.

It was, despite everything, a lovely sight. And did not hint at how in a few hours' time, the cookie would crumble

Right now… Sanya just yawned—said she'd had enough of the heavy, and that they'd continue their search for Ralph in the morning—and stretched out and went to sleep.

As she dreamed, she saw that the only way to leave this world… might be to kill themselves in it.

…

When Sanya woke up, she felt some of the fury she'd stamped down the previous night rising back up.

And while Chirithy was a pleasant presence by her side—trying to convince her to let it go—she couldn't get over just how she'd been betrayed.

And if she really _had _been closer to Skuld and knew her better than Ephemer… It hurt even more, to know that she had also done this. Not that Ephemer had said that, but it wasn't hard to guess.

There was even a dark part of her (and a scared one), that thought maybe they all deserved to be stuck in this data structure or whatever it was.

Ava had meant for them to get out into the New World and to begin again… But if even they, the hope, behaved like this, why even curse the world with such humans again?

"Don't dwell on it, Sanya," Chirithy said sadly, as he crawled up onto her lap and put her face between his fuzzy paws. "Dwelling on the bad is what led to the Nightmare Chirithy last time,"

Sanya frowned. She definitely didn't want a situation like that to rear its ugly head again. Dark Chirithy's "see you in another dream" echoed in her mind—and she still had nightmares about it.

It had been Sanya's bottling up everything before that had led to the Nightmare Chirithy. So she didn't want to keep it bottled up like that again and cause another disaster when it inevitably grew to be too much to bear. Hadn't that been why she'd blown up at Master Ava, when she'd been disguised as Master Ira and saying she'd killed Ephemer? Hadn't that led to darkness in her own heart?

She'd nearly wanted to her friendship with Ephemer just now, since he'd taken her memories of the war, and Sanya didn't think that was right.

Despite the Union Leaders' best efforts,, bits and pieces of the horrors were coming back to her. And since she already recalled them, she wished she at least had the context to make sense of it all.

…The "Riku" medals also used darkness, and they were fine… As was everyone when they used Special Attack Bonus over Guilting now, so was it possible… that darkness maybe wasn't as bad as they'd all come to believe?

That seemed hard to believe, as the two of them rested warily in the candy forest and only half-slept in fear of Heartless and Cy-Bugs… but it was what it was.

Sanya was even tempted to wake Ephemer, and to get his opinion on all of this… but she didn't.

Suddenly possessed by the urge to go to the Foretellers' Tower for the third time now—and to do it secretly, for she didn't know what she'd do—Sanya decided to leave this mission unfinished for the moment (things seemed okay right now. And should the worst happen, Ephemer was there and she'd be right back), and to get back to the data version of Daybreak Town or whatever it really was.

She ran back through Game Central Station, through the circuit—battling a few more Darklings here and there as she did so, with her heart breaking for them now that she remembered what they really used to be—and was in the control room before she could blink.

And then Sanya saw Brain—she thought that was his name—with all the gears.

And as she eyed them… Sanya couldn't help but feel even more suspicious.

Having a room like this—and choosing to spend all your time in it—just seemed devious to Sanya. She didn't care if it was needed to survey the Keyblade wielders for their own safety or not…

The fact that Brain was in here all the time—when surely it could run on autopilot some of the time—made it seem like he saw the people he worked with as the very cogs here.

Breathing heavily, Sanya summoned Missing Ache to her hand—to which Chirithy objected with concern on his face—and she prepared to do battle with Brain if it came to it.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to think that her action was hostile—and truthfully, Sanya wasn't yet sure if it was—and as he watched her from beneath the brim of his hat, he asked: "Sanya, what are you doing here? The mission that you and Ephemer were on isn't complete yet."

Sanya was tempted to quip that she only took orders from Master Ava, who _he _wasn't—but she didn't.

There was no need to be passive-aggressive, and to turn it into something truly aggressive just yet.

So, she just questioned softly, "If we really have been in the Virtual Daybreak Town—and have been since Master Ava created the Dandelions, without knowing that we were there—will we ever even know if we can get out of this place? And if we can… What awaits us outside of here? _We _were supposed to repopulate the world after the Keyblade War, weren't we? And if we don't… I mean, is there even anything out there? And if there _is_somehow… Who knows how long we've been in here? Will we get out just to find there's nothing left? …Is any of this even worth it?"

Brain smiled at Sanya. Part of her felt that this was a good sign… but it made the rest of her feel uneasy in a way that she couldn't place.

He tipped his hat to her once, then commended her intuition. "That's very good. You know about the Book of Prophecies, and how we used to use it to project future versions of the worlds to go to. So as long as we could do that, surely it meant a future with those worlds still existed.

"However… you were here for my lecture towards Ephemer and Ventus. And you know that we're now going to data versions of the formerly prophesized worlds… Those simulations can exist indefinitely—even if the worlds they're based on don't come to exist—should something go awry. So, no: there's no way to tell just by going to the worlds whether they exist or not anymore. The fact that the Master has us going to data worlds now may even be a clue that he didn't think there would be worlds left… But don't you think it's still best to try?"

Try… Sanya didn't know what it was, but despite Brain's simple outfit and laid-back personality, she got the sense that he'd try until his dying breath to see that very cause through. Which seemed like the right thing to do. But could there be too much of a good thing?

It was at that point that Ephemer joined them. And at first, Sanya looked at him ashamed: because with Ephemer gone… had Ralph's world lost the best chance it had? …But at the same time, these things needed hammering out.

"I thought you two might be here," Ephemer said pleasantly enough, though his smile seemed to disappear just when he took in their serious expressions. "…What's going on?"

Forgetting the idea she'd had earlier about all of them dying to do this—had that been the darkness getting to her?.—Sanya spoke. It was an idea that appeared in her head just then… and something in her heart felt so strongly, that it must have been right.

"I think- I think we need to reenter the outside world again, and to do so- We should unplug Daybreak Town from Game Central Station and take it completely off the grid."

Sanya hoped they got what she meant by taking Daybreak Town "off the grid". She meant to have it lose all its power, and for everyone to stop doing missions for the time being. That way, whoever was observing them in the real world would notice the change, come check on them, and maybe they could follow them out that way.

"But that completely goes against the Master's plans," Ephemer answered with a depressed undertone to his voice. He was almost looking at Sanya as if he was seeing her for the first time, which stung.

And right away, she had wanted to retort that she didn't exactly trust the Master of Masters—and if Sanya was gauging Brain's silence correctly, he didn't either—but she was also far from knowing all the answers, and from who she'd been when she'd undergone darkness training with Hades just so she could save Hercules:

While there was a side of Sanya that was beginning to think that light and darkness needed to be kept in balance—didn't plenty of the future medals have darkness to them?—she also still hated herself for the Nightmare Chirithy incident, and because so many friends of hers had died in the Keyblade War. Because the Foretellers just had to-

No. Sanya didn't trust herself to not do something atrocious with this darkness eating away at her. So, for many a reason, she was thinking she should give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that the Master was right…

But on the off-chance he wasn't, she also wanted to lay groundwork for someone else to begin what she started.

"Ephemer… you're perhaps my dearest friend. And a leader—if I'm understanding things correctly—so whatever you choose I'll follow no matter what… But if we are in a lie, don't you think it's best if we leave it? And I know you weren't there when my own Nightmare Chirithy tried to kill me, but he said he'd see me in another dream and I'm sure he's gonna follow through with it! So far, I haven't seen him. And if I get out now, maybe we never will."

To Sanya's surprise, Brain came over to her and put a hand on her shoulder as he maybe, just maybe, let her see under his hat a bit more and smiled at her.

"Your friend has some good points, Leader. You should listen to her… I was really interested in Sugar Rush, but now I think we should drop it, too… What I know about 'video games' is very slim—since they only exist in the future, and what I do know is from skimming the medals and the Book of Prophecies—but I think Ralph's world is exactly that. That would mean that we're connected to whatever controls a video game… Makes me worry that someone may be playing our own lives. Or trying to find a way to do so. I think we should sever our connection to that world to be safe… And, just to be clear: none of that world was written in the Book of Prophecies."

Ephemer was angry now, Sanya could see. He frowned and clenched his fists at his sides. And Sanya got why…

For so long, they'd helped any world they could to gather Lux. Why should this one be any different, when it desperately needed them?

"I don't think I can agree to that, guys. At least not yet… Let the other Union Leaders wake up and then we'll vote on it, okay?"

…And so they did.

But only between three of the Union Leaders. Ventus and Skuld were gone…

And no search through Daybreak Town, or any of the rest of the worlds, showed any sign of them. Not even Lauriam's smart friend Elrena—who had also apparently been asked about Strelitzia—proved to be of any help.

And Sanya's heart ached for Skuld. And so Chirithy gave Sanya many cuddles for that fact…

Until Sanya decided what she had to do.

Ventus and Skuld had gone missing the moment she'd talked about leaving, as if the outside world had listened in and punished her for the thought. So Sanya had started to work together with Brain to dismantle the digital Daybreak Town and get outside, when the pair received some unexpected help from the form of Master Gula.

Sanya didn't care what the results of this would be; that Ephemer would disapprove and break her heart in doing so, that information for two who didn't exist—a Dyme, and a Drulo—would show up in Daybreak Town when they were trying to destroy it, or that Sugar Rush would somehow be replaced with a "Verum Rex".

All Sanya cared about was getting outside.

And, despite everything, making Master Ava's dream come true.

There, she wouldn't be subjected to this world's laws… and should be able to get back all of her memories of her friends, as well as her missing ones.

Sanya reached out to the sky as glass flooded around her—and Gula came floating up beside her—and then she closed her eyes.

**Author's Note: So, I actually meant for this to be a cute shipping piece between Ephemer and Sanya–since I know you ship Ephemer and Player, Liz, especially your Player with him–but somehow it turned tragic, and my idea of what might happen next I guess. Oops.**


End file.
